CITICHAT No 4/2000 - 17 February 2000
JICBC Review
The end and/or beginnings of a year provides an opportunity to review one’s progress in relation to one’s goals for the previous year and set new targets for the year ahead. The Johannesburg Inner City Business Coalition (JICBC) did just that in December of 1999.
The JICBC had its origins in the City Visioning exercise that was started in 1996 and which resulted in then Deputy President Thabo Mbeki enunciating the Vision in mid-1997. It was important that all sectors in the city and all stakeholders were given the opportunity to make inputs into the Visioning process but there wasn’t a relevant representative body for business at that time. The Central Johannesburg Partnership (CJP) had moved from its initial 1992 structure of a trilateral body encompassing Council, Community and Business to representing the Business sector only following the first democratic local authority elections in 1995 but was not adequately representative. It was therefore decided to throw the net wider and bring together companies, businesses and business organisations in a loose coalition to address the issue of formulating the Vision for the city. Following the completion of that process, when the critical phase of ‘vision implementation’ was to begin, an implementing body in the form of the Inner City Section 59 Committee was established as a structural part of the Metro Council but providing for external input. The Inner City Committee, as it is now known, was to comprise four sectoral partners, the Metro Council and its sub-structures, Community, Labour and Business. It was felt that the JICBC should continue to represent Business on that body and it was therefore formalised into a Section 21 Company (not for gain) for that purpose. The CJP shed its business members and became independent of corporate support. It earns a living from research, acting as a consultant on urban issues and providing private urban management services via the city’s City Improvement Districts (CIDs). It was also tasked with managing the JICBC for an initial two year period, 98/99.At the end of last year, the JICBC Executive Committee reviewed the body’s ongoing existence and extended its mandate for a further two years. This was particularly in view of the progress that had been made through the Inner City Committee and the critical stage it had reached.
The implementation of the agreed Vision for the city has been undertaken in a series of progressive and logical steps. Firstly, the Vision, a jumble of words and phrases encapsulating just where city stakeholders want the city to be some time in the future, was turned into a Strategic Plan or Framework. From this, each year, the Inner City Committee establishes about half a dozen priorities and tracks their progress throughout that year. Some priorities cannot be neatly completed within a calendar year and are carried over into the next year but the Inner City Committee maintains a close watch on progress in each case. The various projects I have reported on in the first three issues of Citichat this year all flow from these priorities and are thus linked back to the Vision. When the JICBC Executive sat down in December 1999 it was to workshop what they, as Business, felt the priority issues should be for 2000. These have been forwarded via the Inner City Office to the Inner City Committee who will need to agree the joint priorities for the year ahead. The JICBC proposals are:
1. Planning: to develop a detailed development plan for the core area of the inner city. One of the priorities for 1999 was to develop an Economic and Spatial Framework for the city and the latter aspect, the Spatial Framework, was undertaken by GAPP Architects and Urban Planners and funded by the JICBC. Our feeling is that this was a necessary first step but which now must be firmed up into a detailed development plan. There is a concern that unless this is done, development in the city will be haphazard and not sufficiently focused. More about this particular aspect next week.
2. Financial: to reopen discussions which had been started last year through Prof Richard Tomlinson with Provincial Government for the establishment of a “City Fund” which would leverage development funding from a variety of sectors, both private and public.
3. Incentives: to investigate possible incentives for development across the city. Again, some work had been done last year by Richard Tomlinson but the JICBC want to have this aspect explored further.
4. Housing: to develop a housing strategy for the city. This relates back to the development plan for the city but specifically will look at strong guidelines and possible incentives for residential development.
5. Informal trading: to review the policy and programme for informal trading.
6. Safety and security: to investigate with the City how CID security can be utilised to a greater extent as an added resource to that of the City.
7. Marketing: firstly, to compile credible information on all aspects of the city including an accurate retail database. Secondly, to develop a communication process that can effectively and constantly disperse such information in order to start addressing the vexing issue of changing perceptions about the city.
It’s going to be a busy year! Again!
Wednesday, February 17, 1999
Wednesday, February 10, 1999
Van der Bijl- Gandhi Square Citichat 10 Feb 1999
Citichat 4/99 - Feb 17/1999
Van der Bijl Square Gandhi Square
(This Citichat has been delayed since the 17th due to computer failure! Sorry, but it was out of my hands)
After a long gestation period, the van der Bijl Square redevelopment is about to happen. In many ways it will be one of the first visible examples of a Public/Private Partnership in the Johannesburg CBD and will positively affect many city users and not just commuters.The project, which is being co-ordinated by the CJP, involves the Metropolitan Council, the Southern Metropolitan Local Council, the Gauteng Provincial Government and a group of Property Owners.
The majority of property owners who encircle the van der Bijl Square Bus Terminus have been brought together to form the van der Bijl Square Consortium and. Through Gerald Olitzki and the CJP a long-term lease has been negotiated with Local Government. In terms of the Agreement between the parties, buses which previously utilised the Square for holding purposes will now be relocated to a holding area at the bottom of Rissik Street. This means that in future the Square will only be used for buses which are passing through to collect or drop passengers. This will result in only four lanes being required for bus movement in place of the current ten which, in turn, will allow the balance of the space to be freed up for landscaping.
For many years van der Bijl Square has deteriorated and has become a haunt for muggers and others who have terrorised commuters. On completion of the construction phase of the project at about the end of June, the Square will be incorporated into the Central Improvement District and will be managed by the CJP. As in the other Improvement District areas that the CJP has established and manages, the primary services which will be provided will be safety and security, cleaning, maintenance and environmental ugrading.
The commuting public will thus have the benefit of a safe, secure and clean, landscaped facility. Offices and shops surrounding the Square will share the managed environment that the Improvement District will offer. The upgraded, landscaped and managed Square will turn an existing liability into an asset for the city and will have a positive influence on the surrounding properties, hopefully inducing their enhancement and upgrading where relevant.
The capital cost of the upgrading of the Square is being shared by the majority of property owners contiguous to the Square, ABSA Properties, Commercial Union, Midland Real Estate Group, Metropolitan Properties, Nedcor Bank, Olitzki Property Holdings and Gensec Property Services (formerly Sanlam Properties). A grant has also been received from the Gauteng Provincial Government's Department of Planning and Local Government under their 'First Grant" initiative.
Had an interesting visit from a group of American students this week. They are doing an International Honours Programme in co-operation with Bard College, New York State, with one semester from January to May on "Cities in the 21sst Century - People Planning and Politics". Starting in New York, the group are spending time in Bombay (Mumbai), Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba and Washington DC. The programme is being run on a partnership basis with the Mega-Cities Project and has an emphasis on urban issues and planning. Bard College is about the same age as Johannesburg and offers a master's in environmental studies in addition to its normal undergraduate programme.
The group is being led by the Founder and President of the Mega-Cities Project, Janice Perlman whom I first met some years ago when she visited Johannesburg with the Prince of Wales Business Leaders Group. Mega-Cities is really a network that Janice has developed to share innovative solutions to the problems of the world's largest cities and has some 20 fieldsite teams based at urban research centres and universities in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe and the US. They concentrate on four priority areas, environmental regeneration, poverty and income generation, decentralisation and democratisation and women's empowerment and well-being. Seemed to be a great bunch of kids whose questions revealed not only a real interest but also a good grasp of the issues we face locally. I'd like to set up similar tours for South African students, maybe when I retire!
Maurice Smithers, chairperson of the Yeoville Community Development Forum is producing a newsletter on Yeoville. The first, 'Occasional News No 1' came out earlier this week. If you are interested, you can call Maurice at 083-653.7776 or get him on e-mail at maurice@sn.apc.org . Maurice wrote an excellent article which was published in the Saturday Star on January 23 in which he expressed his concerns/frustrations, which are mirrored by so many, over the issue of conflicting rights and the attitude of 'anything goes'. There certainly are a number of quite sharply diverging definitions of democracy around and it is necessary to get into this debate as and where it impacts on the city. Next time! Cheers
Van der Bijl Square Gandhi Square
(This Citichat has been delayed since the 17th due to computer failure! Sorry, but it was out of my hands)
After a long gestation period, the van der Bijl Square redevelopment is about to happen. In many ways it will be one of the first visible examples of a Public/Private Partnership in the Johannesburg CBD and will positively affect many city users and not just commuters.The project, which is being co-ordinated by the CJP, involves the Metropolitan Council, the Southern Metropolitan Local Council, the Gauteng Provincial Government and a group of Property Owners.
The majority of property owners who encircle the van der Bijl Square Bus Terminus have been brought together to form the van der Bijl Square Consortium and. Through Gerald Olitzki and the CJP a long-term lease has been negotiated with Local Government. In terms of the Agreement between the parties, buses which previously utilised the Square for holding purposes will now be relocated to a holding area at the bottom of Rissik Street. This means that in future the Square will only be used for buses which are passing through to collect or drop passengers. This will result in only four lanes being required for bus movement in place of the current ten which, in turn, will allow the balance of the space to be freed up for landscaping.
For many years van der Bijl Square has deteriorated and has become a haunt for muggers and others who have terrorised commuters. On completion of the construction phase of the project at about the end of June, the Square will be incorporated into the Central Improvement District and will be managed by the CJP. As in the other Improvement District areas that the CJP has established and manages, the primary services which will be provided will be safety and security, cleaning, maintenance and environmental ugrading.
The commuting public will thus have the benefit of a safe, secure and clean, landscaped facility. Offices and shops surrounding the Square will share the managed environment that the Improvement District will offer. The upgraded, landscaped and managed Square will turn an existing liability into an asset for the city and will have a positive influence on the surrounding properties, hopefully inducing their enhancement and upgrading where relevant.
The capital cost of the upgrading of the Square is being shared by the majority of property owners contiguous to the Square, ABSA Properties, Commercial Union, Midland Real Estate Group, Metropolitan Properties, Nedcor Bank, Olitzki Property Holdings and Gensec Property Services (formerly Sanlam Properties). A grant has also been received from the Gauteng Provincial Government's Department of Planning and Local Government under their 'First Grant" initiative.
Had an interesting visit from a group of American students this week. They are doing an International Honours Programme in co-operation with Bard College, New York State, with one semester from January to May on "Cities in the 21sst Century - People Planning and Politics". Starting in New York, the group are spending time in Bombay (Mumbai), Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba and Washington DC. The programme is being run on a partnership basis with the Mega-Cities Project and has an emphasis on urban issues and planning. Bard College is about the same age as Johannesburg and offers a master's in environmental studies in addition to its normal undergraduate programme.
The group is being led by the Founder and President of the Mega-Cities Project, Janice Perlman whom I first met some years ago when she visited Johannesburg with the Prince of Wales Business Leaders Group. Mega-Cities is really a network that Janice has developed to share innovative solutions to the problems of the world's largest cities and has some 20 fieldsite teams based at urban research centres and universities in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe and the US. They concentrate on four priority areas, environmental regeneration, poverty and income generation, decentralisation and democratisation and women's empowerment and well-being. Seemed to be a great bunch of kids whose questions revealed not only a real interest but also a good grasp of the issues we face locally. I'd like to set up similar tours for South African students, maybe when I retire!
Maurice Smithers, chairperson of the Yeoville Community Development Forum is producing a newsletter on Yeoville. The first, 'Occasional News No 1' came out earlier this week. If you are interested, you can call Maurice at 083-653.7776 or get him on e-mail at maurice@sn.apc.org . Maurice wrote an excellent article which was published in the Saturday Star on January 23 in which he expressed his concerns/frustrations, which are mirrored by so many, over the issue of conflicting rights and the attitude of 'anything goes'. There certainly are a number of quite sharply diverging definitions of democracy around and it is necessary to get into this debate as and where it impacts on the city. Next time! Cheers
1998 Progress-1999 Objectives Citichat 10 February 1999
CITICHAT 3/99 – 10 Feb 1999
1998 Progress – 1999 Objectives
Enough of moans and groans - let's get back to the serious stuff and it's all looking really promising.
Towards the end of last year I advised that the work that had been done in 1998 in the Inner City Section 59 Committee had all been approved at its last meeting of the year. This year therefore would be the year of implementation of those issues approved by the Committee as well as setting new priorities for '99.At the first meeting of the Section 59 this week we did just that.
Refresher: the priorities for '98 were:
• Cleansing
• Informal Trade, short and medium-term interventions
• Enforcement
• Housing - development of a Social housing policy and a programme to address 'bad buildings'
• The development of a spatial and economic framework
Of all the above the only two that weren't completed were the latter, the development of the spatial and economic frameworks, but, as reported last week, both of these are progressing well and should be in final form towards the middle/end of March. So the February Meeting of the Section 59 had to consider the implementation strategies for all the other issues, which it did Tuesday, and, with minor modifications, the implementation strategies were all approved. What does that entail in practice?
The final accepted 1998 recommendation on cleansing was for the city to pursue an approach of concessioning the waste management in the inner city area and Graeme Reid has now been authorised to take the necessary steps to implement the concession during 1999.
During 1998 a dedicated informal trade by-law enforcement unit and a dedicated municipal by-law court were established and started to make inroads into the chaos on the pavements. During 1999 this will be broadened through the operationalisation of a centralised enforcement unit covering building control, environmental health (which includes noise pollution, becoming a major problem at present), informal trade, planning, traffic and cleansing infringements. Full-scale enforcement is planned to start in March.
The Policy on Social Housing that was approved requires the development of programmes and systems to give full implementation to the policy. This will be done by identifying precincts in the inner city where urban regeneration initiatives will be concentrated and an investigation is being proceeded with into the establishment of a metropolitan housing company.
On informal trading, approval has been given for the establishment of a market company and the development of eight markets in the inner city which will accommodate 6,000 traders. Once the markets have been established, informal trading on pavements will be virtually prohibited throughout the inner city. The markets are planned for Yeoville, where there will be two; Hillbrow on the corner of Claim and Esselen; the MetroMall site at the intersection of Sauer and Bree Streets; the Drill Hall; the Carlton parking garage; old CNA Building corner Rissik and Commissioner Streets and one in Diagonal Street.
The 1999 priorities adopted are;
• Service delivery
• Restructuring waste management
• Enforcement
• Implementation of the bad buildings programme and of the social housing policy
• Establishing the informal trade markets and management structure
• Public Transport
• Projects and programmes arising out of the spatial and economic frameworks
• Communications, Media Liaison and Marketing.
To a large extent the first five priorities relate to the implementation of the work done last year but that is essential if we are going to achieve the benefits that these programmes will provide. The public transport will be an interesting and overdue addition to our programme. This will include the identification of all legal and mostly illegal on-street taxi ranks and an investigation into alternative sites - it will also include an investigation into the so-called 'metered taxi' industry. The Communications and marketing exercise will aim to start changing perceptions and keep everyone informed of progress.
It's great to see a plan coming together - this is make-or-break year as far as I am concerned and I remain positive and optimistic which neither the doom-and-gloom brigade nor the destructive media can dispel.
In this latter regard I have little doubt that our ranking at level 6 by City Briefs (level 1 virtually crime free - level 7 total breakdown of law and order) is due in no small measure to our media. Level 6 puts us in bed with Algiers, Bogota, Brazzaville, Cabinda, Guatemala City, Kabul, Kinshasha, Lae, Lagos, Medellin, Port Harcourt and Port Moresby. Realistically I would have anticipated that we would have deserved a Level 4. But it is the constant sensationalising by sections of the press, the 'slight misreporting' that they have become so adept at, which has done the damage. Sorry, I started by saying no moans and groans……..whatever!
1998 Progress – 1999 Objectives
Enough of moans and groans - let's get back to the serious stuff and it's all looking really promising.
Towards the end of last year I advised that the work that had been done in 1998 in the Inner City Section 59 Committee had all been approved at its last meeting of the year. This year therefore would be the year of implementation of those issues approved by the Committee as well as setting new priorities for '99.At the first meeting of the Section 59 this week we did just that.
Refresher: the priorities for '98 were:
• Cleansing
• Informal Trade, short and medium-term interventions
• Enforcement
• Housing - development of a Social housing policy and a programme to address 'bad buildings'
• The development of a spatial and economic framework
Of all the above the only two that weren't completed were the latter, the development of the spatial and economic frameworks, but, as reported last week, both of these are progressing well and should be in final form towards the middle/end of March. So the February Meeting of the Section 59 had to consider the implementation strategies for all the other issues, which it did Tuesday, and, with minor modifications, the implementation strategies were all approved. What does that entail in practice?
The final accepted 1998 recommendation on cleansing was for the city to pursue an approach of concessioning the waste management in the inner city area and Graeme Reid has now been authorised to take the necessary steps to implement the concession during 1999.
During 1998 a dedicated informal trade by-law enforcement unit and a dedicated municipal by-law court were established and started to make inroads into the chaos on the pavements. During 1999 this will be broadened through the operationalisation of a centralised enforcement unit covering building control, environmental health (which includes noise pollution, becoming a major problem at present), informal trade, planning, traffic and cleansing infringements. Full-scale enforcement is planned to start in March.
The Policy on Social Housing that was approved requires the development of programmes and systems to give full implementation to the policy. This will be done by identifying precincts in the inner city where urban regeneration initiatives will be concentrated and an investigation is being proceeded with into the establishment of a metropolitan housing company.
On informal trading, approval has been given for the establishment of a market company and the development of eight markets in the inner city which will accommodate 6,000 traders. Once the markets have been established, informal trading on pavements will be virtually prohibited throughout the inner city. The markets are planned for Yeoville, where there will be two; Hillbrow on the corner of Claim and Esselen; the MetroMall site at the intersection of Sauer and Bree Streets; the Drill Hall; the Carlton parking garage; old CNA Building corner Rissik and Commissioner Streets and one in Diagonal Street.
The 1999 priorities adopted are;
• Service delivery
• Restructuring waste management
• Enforcement
• Implementation of the bad buildings programme and of the social housing policy
• Establishing the informal trade markets and management structure
• Public Transport
• Projects and programmes arising out of the spatial and economic frameworks
• Communications, Media Liaison and Marketing.
To a large extent the first five priorities relate to the implementation of the work done last year but that is essential if we are going to achieve the benefits that these programmes will provide. The public transport will be an interesting and overdue addition to our programme. This will include the identification of all legal and mostly illegal on-street taxi ranks and an investigation into alternative sites - it will also include an investigation into the so-called 'metered taxi' industry. The Communications and marketing exercise will aim to start changing perceptions and keep everyone informed of progress.
It's great to see a plan coming together - this is make-or-break year as far as I am concerned and I remain positive and optimistic which neither the doom-and-gloom brigade nor the destructive media can dispel.
In this latter regard I have little doubt that our ranking at level 6 by City Briefs (level 1 virtually crime free - level 7 total breakdown of law and order) is due in no small measure to our media. Level 6 puts us in bed with Algiers, Bogota, Brazzaville, Cabinda, Guatemala City, Kabul, Kinshasha, Lae, Lagos, Medellin, Port Harcourt and Port Moresby. Realistically I would have anticipated that we would have deserved a Level 4. But it is the constant sensationalising by sections of the press, the 'slight misreporting' that they have become so adept at, which has done the damage. Sorry, I started by saying no moans and groans……..whatever!
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